The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, has verbalized that it is inequitable for anybody to optically discern President Goodluck Jonathan as the quandary in the case of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State on April 14.
Abati argued that those criticising the President were nescient of what the Federal Regime was doing to rescue the girls.
He verbally expressed the endeavor to ignore the issues and argue that Jonathan was the quandary had resulted in deliberate mischief fuelled by incognizance and sponsored propaganda.
Abati made his position kenned in an opinion titled, “Nigeria’s offensive against Boko Haram Charges of a ‘do-nothing’ strategy are misconceived” published by Washington Times.
Abati however admitted that the concern that had been expressed over the abduction of the girls was legitimate and understandable.
“What is not fair, and which stands out in many of the criticisms directed at the Nigerian regime, is the endeavor to ignore the issues and argue that President Goodluck Jonathan is the quandary.
“This endeavor to turn the matter of the abducted girls into a referendum on the Jonathan administration has resulted in a consummate misreading of the situation and much deliberate mischief fuelled by nescience and sponsored propaganda,” he indited.
The presidential spokesman verbalized the most popular misconception was the notion that the Jonathan administration had consciously adopted a “do-nothing” strategy, and that the regime only responded and considered international partnership indispensable after pressure was mounted on it to do something.
He recalled that the Boko Haram threat dated back to 2002 and had become a more astronomically immense menace, and a full-scale terrorist kineticism by the time Jonathan postulated office in 2010.
He verbalized the sect’s elements and their international allies had carved out enclaves in the North-East of the country by hosting their flags and threatening to destabilise the regime and impose an Islamic state.
During the past four years, Abati verbally expressed Jonathan had taken proactive steps to combat terrorism, through military, political and gregarious approaches.
He additionally recalled that in May 2013, a state of emergency was declared in the most affected northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and had been renewed twice.
While saying that Nigeria was not acting alone, Abati verbally expressed the military operation involved the Nigerian security forces and the Multinational Joint Task Force set up under the auspices of the Lake Chad Commission with troops contributed by Niger, Nigeria and Chad.
Abati verbally expressed Nigeria withal shared astuteness and efforts with Cameroon and Benin through the Gulf of Guinea Commission, fixating on piracy, border security and checking the proliferation of minute arms and light weapons within the region.
He verbalized since 2011, Nigerian security chiefs had been meeting customarily with their counterparts from the four neighbouring countries on matters of tranquility and security.
These efforts, he integrated, yielded positive results, eminently the decimation of the ranks of the Boko Haram and their restriction to the Sambisa Forest.
He integrated that a Presidential Dialogue Committee was set up to pursue the option of a tranquil resolution of the Boko Haram insurgency while integrating that the President additionally launched a Presidential Initiative for the North-East, an economic-instauration programme.
He therefore argued that the April 14 abduction of the Chibok girls and subsequent developments marked a turning point in the Boko Haram saga, describing it as a terrible resurgence of an perpetual challenge, not the commencement.
He verbalized, “The assault on schools by terrorists and the threat to turn innocent adolescent girls into sex slaves and prisoners of terrorism is unacceptable. The outrage is understandable. But we must not become so visually impaired by its horror as to reduce it all to the fault of one man. This is not about the vigor or failings of one man.
“Terrorism is an assault on human rights and our civilisation. It requires international cooperation and concerted domestic action.
“President Jonathan is plenarily committed to ascertaining that the girls are rescued alive. Yes, it has been more than 80 days since the nightmare commenced. Americans, Canadians, the British and other friends of Nigeria are all involved in the search, in one form or the other, but infelicitously, with all the technology and perspicacity at their disposal, the girls are yet to be found.”
